2007-07-13 09:57:22 · 3 answers · asked by SoberAsADuck 4 in Games & Recreation ➔ Video & Online Games
An emulator duplicates (provides an emulation of) the functions of one system with a different system, so that the second system behaves like (and appears to be) the first system. This focus on exact reproduction of external behavior is in contrast to simulation, which concerns an abstract model of the system being simulated, often considering internal state.
Emulation refers to the ability of a program or device to imitate another program or device. Many printers, for example, are designed to emulate Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printers because so much software is written for HP printers. By emulating an HP printer, a printer can work with any software written for a real HP printer. Emulation "tricks" the software into believing that a device is really some other device.
A hardware emulator is an emulator which takes the form of a hardware device. Examples include printer emulators inside the ROM of the printer, and FPGA-based hardware emulators.
In a theoretical sense, the Church-Turing thesis implies that any operating environment can be emulated within any other. In practice, it can be quite difficult, particularly when the exact behavior of the system to be emulated is not documented and has to be deduced through reverse engineering. It also says nothing about timing constraints; if the emulator does not perform as quickly as the original hardware, the emulated software may run much more slowly than it would have on the original hardware.
2007-07-17 09:58:48 · answer #1 · answered by RED DRAGON 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
An emulator can be a piece of software to be able to execute programs written for other computer-architectures like Macintosh, X-box, PlayStation, GameCube. There are also emulators for old consoles like Commodore 64, Atari and video arcade games.
OS emulators like VMware are used to run multiple operating systems simultaneous on one computer. The DOS emulator under Windows XP could also be one.
And there are hardware emulator which can be used to simulate hardware (i.e. part of a computer system) with computer software using an in-circuit emulator.
2007-07-13 11:01:48 · answer #2 · answered by UdovdM 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it's a program where you can play that consoles games on your computer and you can get them all ps2, xbox, etc
2007-07-13 10:05:36 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋